The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot
by AnHeiressofaSOLDIER
Summary: A one-sided RiKai drabble set during KHII. Kairi is fighting alongside Riku, and he couldn't be happier for it, but he doesn't think such happiness can last-or that he can ever be forgiven-when he's done what he has in the past. A hopeful one-shot just disguised as angst, really. SoRiKai if you squint.
**The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot**

Kairi was fighting alongside Riku. And were it not for the fact he looked like their worst enemy—who had tried to kill Kairi, because he himself had given into the darkness… and if he wasn't preparing to never see her or Sora again after this—he probably would've been thrilled.

They were doing something to protect the worlds right now, and every time he could see Kairi's face realizing that fact—her heart also becoming aglow then, and emitting a warmth that Riku never thought he'd find himself fortunate enough to feel again; not through the light—he honestly couldn't have been more proud of her.

He'd sensed something in his best friend that perhaps Sora hadn't even noted in Kairi, and now she was finally getting her chance to help out the way that she had always wanted to.

Perhaps in another life, he—the Keyblade master who _hadn't_ messed up—had given the girl the ability to wield the Keyblade, somehow, in realizing that all the Princesses had the capability to create the Keyblade of People's Hearts, so why shouldn't they wield a Keyblade, then?

But Riku really did not want to be thinking of anything related to Xehanort's Heartless and his former plans right now. It was that man's fault (his fault) that he couldn't go back to his old life, or dream of the things that he wanted.

After what he'd done, Riku didn't believe he had the right to see anyone from the Islands:

Not his parents, not Selphie, Tidus, or Wakka, and certainly not Kairi or Sora.

And the Keyblade that he had just unearthed from Kairi—that seemed to make waves from the sea come to live against their adversaries when she wielded it—was proof enough that she belonged there and not with him.

Oh, she fought by his side valiantly now—dodging away from one of his strikes in her direction, just as she needed to, and sometimes darting toward him so that he could breathe in her scent of vanilla and jasmine tea, that he'd always known, and deluded himself that he could back to at his home—to the people he loved, even—who made and wore that scent better than any other world that he'd ever come across did.

Yes, it was a bitter and cruel irony that Riku and Kairi were in now, when the two of them almost embraced in a spin, but he would gladly take what he could get at the moment, and moan about his life later.

And it was clear that this would be the only time they _were_ together, for every now and then Kairi would look down at Sora to make sure he was doing alright, and Riku was doing the same thing, honestly.

And it was just so clear who Kairi loved and deserved, and who was the same for her.

But Riku couldn't bring himself to hate them. He wished them the best, actually. The Island was always meant for light, and maybe he could've once belonged there, too, Riku thought…. If he hadn't messed things up.

That was a fair enough assessment to make, wasn't it?

Until Sora and Kairi ended up reuniting, and Kairi surprised Riku greatly in not allowing him to leave.

And not too long after that, Sora was much the same and weeping openly on the floor for him, the idiot.

Riku had been content with his fate before, but it was never wrong to want more. Right?

When Riku ended up fighting alongside Sora—maybe for the first time ever—and found that it was very similar to fighting with Kairi, he let himself finally think that maybe he could be forgiven:

That saving the multiverse this time, and acting to aid his friends instead of harming them, was enough to see him through.

Upon seeing a familiar sun on a familiar shore after the final battle, Riku knew that he had found his answer.

He waded in the water gratefully.

Sprung on by Mickey, he was able to grin himself, when Kairi and Naminé (and presumably Sora, though Riku couldn't see him) ended up smiling their own looks.

 **Author's Note: Title inspired by a song of the same name, by the band "Brand New".**


End file.
